1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compliant pin connector mounting system and a method of mounting a compliant pin connector on a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Connectors have conventionally been mounted to circuit boards via solder. An alternative way of mounting connectors to a substrate is via solderless contacts. However, conventional solderless contacts have suffered from various problems.
Particularly, stresses are applied to the solderless contacts of the connector during mounting of the connector to a circuit board, and additional stresses caused by thermal expansion are applied to the solderless contacts of the connector during operation. These stresses may cause damage to the solderless contacts and reduce the reliability of the connector.
In addition, due to manufacturing tolerances, the contacts of the connector may not be properly aligned with the respective mounting structure on the circuit board. Such misalignment may make it difficult to mount the connector on the circuit board, may prevent proper electrical connections between the contacts of the connector and the mounting structure on the circuit board, and may cause damage to the contacts of the connector during mounting to the circuit board, such as buckling of the contact.
To prevent some of the problems described above, a variety of compliant pin configurations have been used in order to provide a structure that can compensate for the stresses applied to the contacts during mounting of the connector to the circuit board and to compensate for the additional stresses caused by thermal expansion during operation, so as to prevent damage to the solderless contacts. However, conventional solderless contacts with compliant pin configurations have a relatively large length, which are prone to buckling during mounting of the connector to a circuit board.
Further, conventional compliant pin connectors having small contact pitches and fine geometries are typically insert molded components, in which plastic is molded around the contacts, which prevents movement of the contact retention portion and facilitates mounting of the connector to a circuit board. However, insert molded components are very expensive to produce.
In addition, various tools and mounting methods have been used to attempt to overcome the problems described above. For example, for a connector having a very simple geometry (particular face geometry), a block having a flat surface, known as a “Flat Rock,” has been used to apply a downward force to a face of the connector in order mount the connector to a circuit board. However, such a simple block is unsuitable for mounting connectors having more complicated geometries. Further, a mounting method has been used in which separate loads are applied to each individual solderless contact. However, such a method is very time consuming and costly. Thus, none of the known tools or mounting methods have been able to adequately cope with and overcome the problems described above.